Inside The Bills

Even though he’s only 33-years old, the Bills new Offensive Coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett, is on his second go-around with the team. And when he worked with the Bills as an Offensive Quality Control Coach from 2008-09, Hackett worked closely with then-Bills QB Coach Alex Van Pelt.

Wednesday night on The John Murphy Show, Van Pelt had nothing but praise for Buffalo’s new offensive play caller.

“He brings a lot of ideas to the table,” Van Pelt said on the radio show. “He thinks outside the box sometimes, which you need. He helped with the quarterbacks, he helped in game planning. He’s a great, young bright mind in this league, and I think he’ll be around for a long time.”

Alex Van Pelt just finished his first season as the Running Backs Coach for the Green Bay Packers. That followed a two year stint as the WRs Coach in Tampa Bay. But Van Pelt remains a Bills fan and a fan of Western New York, where he spent most of his playing and early coaching career. And Van Pelt thinks the Bills got a good one, when they hired Nathaniel Hackett.

“I could not be more excited for the Bills, than to have Coach Hackett calling plays,” Van Pelt told host John Murphy. “The guy is a special talent, there’s no question. He’s filled with energy. He has a football mind. He’s grown up in football, with his dad. I remember him as a ball boy back at the University of Pittsburgh, and the first chance I had to hire him on our staff in Buffalo, as a quality control guy, we jumped on him.”

“Good things are coming to Buffalo. I’m excited to see how he puts it all together offensively. I know he has history in the West Coast Offense, and I know we dabbled a little bit in the ‘K-Gun’ there, and I think he’s found a nice combination of the two,” according to Van Pelt.

The John Murphy Show airs weeknights from 7-9pm on the flagship station of the Bills, WGR Sports Radio 550.